? Or is it because so many of
them became British subjects _only because_ they were compelled to take
an oath of allegiance (or sign a declaration) to a government they
neither loved nor respected but hated and despised? In the former case
it would be base ingratitude on their part to rise in rebellion, in the
latter it seems almost natural. However it be, the lustre and beauty of
English history is sadly marred by the fact that often British artillery
had to bear on British subjects, and British arms had to be employed to
subdue England's own children.

Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the United States of America, India,
Afghanistan, Egypt, South Africa, and many besides of less importance,
have resisted British authority at different times. Some of these, like
the late Republics, were at one time or other laid in ruins and
devastated by British arms. For years and years their inhabitants were
subjected to awful persecutions. The blood of the best and bravest was
spilt like water, whilst millions were spent to conquer whole
populations--millions which might have been used for better and nobler
purposes. And to-day thousands of British subjects are ruled by the
point of the bayonet--by sheer force, not by common consent.

Having spent the greater part of the Anglo-Boer war time in the Cape
Colony, we had the opportunity of ascertaining some, if not all, of the
reasons why so many Colonial British subjects took up arms against the
forces of their lawful king and sovereign. These causes we shall here
narrate. By doing this we do not justify the action of those whose
sympathies led them to cast in their lot with the two Republics. We do
not wish to inculcate or foster the spirit of rebellion in any man, nor
to fan it by words of approval. But we do wish to make known to the
British public in particular that those Dutch colonists who sided with
the late Republics during the lamentable war did not do so because they
hated British rule or government or longed to shed the blood of English
fellow-subjects. Neither did they enlist in our ranks because they
regarded war as an adventurous game and mere child's play. In most cases
the rebels were, prior to the war, as loyal to the British crown, and as
devoted to British rule, as their fellow-English colonists ever were or
could have been. For they had been born and brought up under the British
flag; they knew no other, desired no better, even gloried in the flag of
England. To it they